Discussion of things related to comics, movies, games, and books, written by someone frequently bewildered by his own mind.

Sunday, September 07, 2014

The Invisible Man 2.1 - Legends

Plot: It's a new season, and with it, the Agency is under a new umbrella, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Fish & Game did not renew their contract, but that's in the past. The present is that two men on the Sanakee Reservation were murdered, and they fear it is a message from Vegas gaming interests to not pursue establishing casinos on the reservation. So off Fawkes, Hobbes, and the Keeper go, to receive a less than warm welcome from the local authority, John Grey, who feels he should be handling this. Hobbes exacerbates things by telling John to trust the government, and John rightfully points out that hasn't worked out too well for Native Americans in, well, ever. Then Fawkes, in an attempt to be chummy, calls him "chief", which just, no, Fawkes.

Anyway, they manage to avoid getting their asses beat long enough for Claire to examine the bodies, and for Joseph Leaning Tree, who was with the two men who were killed, to arrive and tell them it was the Wendigo. He warns Fawkes specifically to watch for its red eyes, and to beware the Wendigo, 'in here' (puts hands on Darien's chest). Our three Agency fellows and Mr. Grey decide to camp near the site of the murders and investigate, and Claire finds a large footprint, which gets Hobbes very excited about Bigfoot. That night, when Fawkes gets up to pee, he sees a pair of red eyes watching him from the woods. The following morning, the quartet follow the footprints to a burial mound, where they find a small skeleton, not human, but sorta close. Fawkes wanders off to pee - again - and is taken hostage by some crazy guy with an Uzi, and dragged out in front of the others. Hobbes says he's waiting for a clear shot, so Fawkes goes invisible, which does not render you immune to bullets, Darien, and the crazy guy has thermal goggles, and hand grenades, so he escapes. Fawkes deflects John's questions about the disappearing act rather cheaply, but I guess John's used to not getting straight answers from G-men.

That night, as Fawkes tries to sleep through Hobbes' snoring, their tent is ripped into the air by something large. Something they can't see, that licks Fawkes, and kills John when he comes to the rescue. Our Agency pals pile into the Jeep, but are unable to escape because the thing has grabbed hold of it. Fortunately, the crazy guy runs up with a shotgun, fires a couple of times, then runs, as does the creature, though it left some blood behind. Blood which the Keeper finds has Quicksilver in it. Fawkes realizes Kevin created his biosynthetic gland based off the actual gland inside a creature which people have a hard time finding. Because it's invisible. With this realization, they're all on board to try and capture it, on the chance Claire could learn something from its gland that can help her with Darien. Except they try and use a net, and that's not going to hold an 800 pound creature, and so it just grabs Darien and leaves. Fawkes awakens upside-down in a tree, but he still has his walkie-talkie. Claire tells him to keep calm, then tells him she thinks the Bigfoot wants to mate, and that Fawkes' gland probably causes him to give off pheromones. Oh, and Darien's gland has XX chromosomes, so he's reading as female.

Right on cue, the crazy guy appears and cuts Darien down, only to tie his wrists. He explains he is Lawrence Odetts, the #2 expert on Sasquatch. His now-deceased wife was #1, until she was killed by one year ago. Which is how Lawrence knows they're invisible, but he found himself laughed at by all the other Bigfoot experts. Lawrence intends to let Bigfoot have his way with Darien, then he's going to kill it with a grenade launcher. The Bigfoot arrives, and Darien freezes his ropes by Quicksilvering his wrists, enabling him to break them, and stop Lawrence from killing the Bigfoot. But Larry won't be stopped, so Bigfoot grabs him, and Larry pulls the pin on one of the regular grenades on his vest. And that's the end of that.

Except the Official is not happy, and neither are the people of the reservation. Apparently, "Invisible Bigfoot did it" is not an acceptable answer to come back with. Especially when they wrecked a Jeep, and lost a $900 satellite phone. And then it gets real hostile, because the Official actually tells Darien he is dishonoring Kevin's memory by suggesting he based the biosynthetic gland on a preexisting biological gland. Except the Fat Man overplays his hand and mentions specifically that it's a 10-foot tall creature, when neither Darien or Hobbes said anything about how tall it is.

Quote of the Episode: Darien - 'I don't care how smart Kevin was, you can't just create a human gland, can you?'

The "oh crap" count: 3 (3 overall).

Who's getting quoted this week? Salman Rushdie, who said sometimes myths make reality, and become more useful than facts. And George Orwell, who said myths believed in tend to become true.

Times Fawkes Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 0 (0 overall).

"Shut up, Eberts" Count: 3 (3 overall). We'll see how this goes. May have been a fluke episode.

Other: When Darien Quicksilvered his eyes near the end of the episode, they were shown as black, rather than silver.

Near the end of the episode, Darien said something to Odetts that made me write down 'But Fawkes, you renounced revenge', but I don't recall what it was. I remember Darien pointing out this can't possibly be the same one that killed Odetts' wife hundreds of miles from here, and that it's crazy to regard killing one member of the species as being as good as any other. I recall Odetts asked if he'd ever lost someone he cared about, and maybe whether he'd want to kill the one responsible. So maybe that's it.

Still thought it was crazy of Darien to go invisible right in front of John Grey when Hobbes is waiting for a chance to shoot. I mean, how does Hobbes know which direction Darien rolled when he can't see him? Hobbes doesn't want to shoot his partner. Not that Hobbes seems capable of hitting much of anything. He should just let Claire do all the shooting. She's not as quick on the trigger, but she's much more precise.

I thought it was funny when they dove in the Jeep, that Hobbes advised them to not move, like a Bigfoot is the same as a T-Rex. Just because they're both large, doesn't make their eyesight the same. The Bigfoot has a roughly similar skull to ours, it has binocular vision, it has depth perception. Not to mention it can probably hear them yelling inside the Jeep.

I'm not sure how them being in the Bureau of Indian Affairs is gonna go. Hobbes and Fawkes might need a course of cultural sensitivity before the next case.

I cannot believe the Official actually went there with Fawkes. To suggest to Darien - this his face - that he is dishonoring his brother's memory, just to cover up the existence of Bigfoot - to two people who know it exists because they got their asses kicked by it - is the height of arrogance. And stupidity. If Darien had lunged across the desk and killed the Official, I would not have objected in the slightest. I mean, seriously Fat Man, just cop to it. Make them sign a non-disclosure form or something, then come up with some palatable lie you can tell the folks on the reservation. Pin the deaths of Odetts. He was carrying the firepower for it, he clearly didn't care who the Sasquatch hurt so long as it gave him the chance to kill it, screw that guy. He said it himself, in a community of crackpots, he is considered a crackpot. You say he went crazy and killed three men because he thought they were interfering with his hunt for invisible Bigfoot, nobody who knows the guy is gonna bat an eye. But instead he opts to talk that shit to Darien's face? The dude who can go invisible, who can also make anything he carries - like say, a gun or a knife - invisible? The guy who occasionally goes crazy and tries to kill people? That's a person you want to get on the bad side of? The Official's getting a little too complacent. He needs a kick in the teeth.

So here's the deal going forward. This was the last episode contained on the Season 1 DVDs. I don't know why, don't ask me. However, Hulu has the whole series available, so I'm going to see if I can get enough Internet here in the boonies to watch one episode a week, and if so, we'll continue forward as normal through the end of the series. Which should be interesting for me, as it's largely uncharted territory. I haven't seen any of those episodes in at least a decade, so other than some stuff about the finale, I don't remember much of anything. Change of pace to go in almost entirely blind.